How to Repair Screens

(Page 3 of 3)

Oct. 30, 2008
By Jeff Taylor 
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Afterward, take off the weights and the screen will stretch perfectly taut. Slowly and carefully cut away the excess screen, and you’re done.

RELATED CONTENT

Sliding Screen Doors

This design improvement is a delight to work with, but only if the frame is also made of wood. Most are aluminum and relatively flimsy. While you can still fix small breaks in the screen as described above, a full “screenectomy” is trickier than the same operation on a wood door. The flimsy frame is almost impossible to keep square, and it’s like wrestling an octopus.

Remove the screen door by sliding it all the way open and lifting it off the track. (See Image Gallery.) Place it on sawhorses and check the tiny roller wheels at the bottom corners, often made of plastic; if they are badly worn or damaged, replace them. If not, oil them, vacuum the track where they run, and give thanks. These are not stock items, and finding exact replacements is inevitably a challenge; knowing where the door was purchased helps, but not always. The adjusting screws that raise or lower the wheels are located on the bottom edge; unscrewing them all the way releases the wheel mechanism. Good luck finding one exactly like it, but odds are you’ll have to replace the entire screen door if you can’t find a match.

If you’d like to learn how to build your own wooden doors for barn or house, read The Handmade Door.

Do you have other tips for repairing screen doors? Share them in the comments section below.

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  • Geoffrey Taylor 11/7/2008 7:16:39 PM

    Many thanks for the kind words, Erik. Bob and I are close friends of 20+ years, introduced when my dad (who worked with Bob) said, "I have a cartoonist friend you've GOT to meet." He was right. Bob and I live about 30 miles apart, and meet weekly. Both of us have 24-year-old only daughters, and the resultant white hairs.

    Our combined experience as handymen/carpenters/builders is astounding in scope, even when we think about it and abandon false modesty, plus both of us have been reading MEN since Issue #1. We're both delighted to be in the online edition of the magazine, and would be happy to answer any questions that might come up if you ever tackle a screen-door repair.

    Aside from being a manic genius with blank paper and colors, Bob forges Claymores and builds flintlocks from scratch; he's teaching me Russian and I'm teaching him Tagalog. We're also working on a book.

    Best regards,
    Jeff

  • Erik Larson 11/6/2008 7:55:18 PM

    Thank you for such a wonderfully simple way to repair screens. These are solutions that are so simple, I found myself thinking, "Why didn't I think of that?" I'm glad someone did and shared them.
    I also appreciate the image gallery. Too often there is only one picture and it is of no use. Thank you for providing so much useful information.

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